Plea to Arab League to monitor Syrian flashpoints

Plea to Arab League to monitor Syrian flashpoints

clipped from article: The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) called Sunday for the observers to despatch without fail to Homs and other hot spots of the government's bloody crackdown on dissent.

"Since early this morning, the (Homs) neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been under a tight siege and the threat of military invasion by an estimated 4,000 soldiers," said the SNC, the main umbrella group of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

"The Syrian National Council demands that the Arab League observers go to Homs immediately, specifically to the besieged neighbourhoods, to fulfil their stated mission," it added in a statement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces pounded Baba Amr with mortar and heavy machinegun fire, killing an undetermined number of people and wounding 124 others.

It earlier reported one civilian killed in the city's Karm al-Zeitun district.

The Observatory said 26 people were arrested and tortured in public in nearby Rastan, and that one civilian was killed by security forces in eastern Deir Ezzor province.

It also reported five civilians shot and wounded in the capital's southern district of Sitt Zeinab.

The central city of Homs has been a focal point of the Assad government's crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations, as well as the site of fierce clashes between the army and deserters.

"Three children who had been wounded on Saturday in military and security operations in the town of Al-Quriya died," said the Observatory, noting that reports of the deaths were delayed as the town is cut off by security forces.[ read more at link]